Sixty homeless people died in Wales during 2021, a new report has revealed. The number of rough sleepers and people without a home who died in Wales was three fewer than in the year before.
Wales was the only country in the UK which saw a decline. In England the number of deaths of homeless people increased from 630 to 719, in Scotland the total rose from 176 to 182, while the biggest increase was seen in Northern Ireland, which had 107 deaths in 2020 and 325 in 2021.
Across the UK as a whole, the number of homeless people dying went up from 976 to 1286 - an increase of 32%. The report, whose statistics are based on answers to a series Freedom of Information Act requests, has been published by the Museum of Homelessness, which runs the Dying Homeless Project annually. Get our free daily briefing on the biggest issues affecting the nation, Wales Matters, here.
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The organisation predicted that the number of homeless people dying will rise as an estimated 1.3m people are pushed into absolute poverty by the cost-of-living crisis. In Wales the local authority with the highest number of homeless deaths was Cardiff, which saw an increase from 14 to 18.
The number of deaths in other Welsh local authority areas was Conwy, 6; Denbighshire, 1; Flintshire, 1; Gwynedd, 1; Neath Port Talbot, 8; Newport, 7; Pembrokeshire, 2; Powys, 1; Rhondda Cynon Taf, 4; Swansea,8, Vale of Glamorgan, 1, Torfaen, 2. Other council areas had no recorded deaths of homeless people.
Cofounder of the Museum of Homelessness Jess Turtle said, “These findings are a hammer blow. It’s heart-breaking to see so many people dying and to feel so helpless in the face of such a serious emergency. Government neglect means things keep getting worse with new provision for mental health, addiction and social housing failing to make up for previous cuts.
“If the UK Government took this situation seriously, it wouldn’t have slashed the budget for discretionary housing payments by over a third last month - making it harder for councils to offer the people the breathing space they need to avoid homelessness. Reversing this £40m cut and ending the freeze on local housing allowance rates should be immediate priorities so that people have a fighting chance of meeting the spike in private rents.
“Ultimately, the government can’t fix what it doesn’t understand. There needs to be a confidential enquiry into the deaths of homeless people to allow an honest appraisal of what’s happening to the UK’s most vulnerable people. There should also be mandatory fatality reviews for all local authorities – so lessons can be learned from each death.”
Ms Turtle added: “Only seven fatalities were due to Covid-19. However, cuts to mental health and addiction services mean too many people don’t get the support they need. Of the cases in which we have confirmed the cause of death, 41% were related to drug and alcohol use and 12% died from completing suicide.”
The other co-founder of the Museum of Homelessness, Matt Turtle, said: “Too many people are dying in dangerous accommodation run by unregulated landlords and funded by the taxpayer. Our research suggests over 90% of deaths in the cases where we know of a person’s situation occurred after they were placed in insecure accommodation.
“These often occur in taxpayer funded hostels which are exempt from the price cap local authorities apply to shared accommodation as they are meant to provide people experiencing homelessness with care as well as a safe place to live temporarily. But many fail to meet their most basic obligations.
“The companies managing exempt accommodation now receive over £800 million a year from the public purse. The government needs to urgently regulate these businesses – providing proper oversight so people are protected and our taxes stop funding negligent landlords.”
Today Museum of Homelessness and frontline groups including the Simon Community, Streets Kitchen and The Outside Project will hold a vigil outside Downing Street from 6pm – 8pm to commemorate those who have died. People are invited to light a candle there or at home and post it online with the hashtag #MakeThemCount
